1. Field of the Present Invention
The present invention relates generally to methods of controlling access to real estate properties, and, in particular, to methods of using an electronic door lock control system in conjunction with direct real-time communication between a prospective home buyer and a real estate agent or other service provider.
2. Background
Builders have traditionally contracted with real estate agents to represent them in the sale of their new homes with the expectation that agents would provide access, sales and security. They count on agents to facilitate the showing of their new properties to prospective buyers, with or without the accompaniment of the agents themselves. In large subdivisions with dozens of new homes being built, agents are available “on-site” certain hours of the day to open and sell these new homes, and keep the properties secure.
However, with the dearth of areas suitable for large developments today in many markets, builders are constructing “infill” homes, that is, new homes in existing neighborhoods. Currently, agents mount a mechanical key-holding device on the front door of such properties to provide access to other agents. These other agents have a personal device which they use to interact with the doorknob-mounted device to open it and to access a key to the front door of the property. As they leave, they lock the door and place the key back in the doorknob-mounted device.
For a buyer without a buyer's agent to tour a newly built home, he/she calls the listing agent of record and requests a tour. The agent typically has to drive over to the property immediately to open the home for the prospective buyer, or set an appointment to meet there at a later time. Because of the hassles involved, buyers often do not call an agent for a tour unless they have exceptional interest. Agents find it a hassle to have to drop everything to show these homes, often only to discover the buyers to be “tire-kickers.” Agents with multiple properties must devote a considerable amount of time to this process with little return on their investment of time and money. As a result, builders' properties are not shown as often as they would like. In desperation, some builders encourage buyer tours by unlocking their mostly-completed homes during the daylight hours and locking them back up every night. They know that buyers need to explore/touch/see the houses in order to have interest in and come to buy a property.
At the current time in the real estate market, there is not a keyless lock that works on a time rotation or sequence-based code, which could be used for Builder's new properties. The products that are available involve (1) opening a box and extracting a key or (2) keyless unlocking via a punched in code but the code in the lock has to be changed manually if it can be changed at all. Both present significant security risks since both the key and the unchanged code could fall into the wrong people's hands. Thus, a need exists for a dynamic electronic door lock control system using periodically-changing access codes to control access to properties being offered for sale or lease.